Anne Margot “Honey” Lantree, who has died aged 75, achieved the unique feat of being the first woman drummer in a pop group to top the British charts as a member of the group The Honeycombs, whose single Have I the Right, a classic of the beat group era, produced by Joe Meek, reached #1 in 1964.
While there were any number of young female singers flourishing in the early 1960s, among them Dusty Springfield and Lulu, beat groups of the day were a strictly a male preserve, and the novelty of the attractive, smiling figure of Honey Lantree, in fashionable beehive hairdo, seated behind a drum kit, was a potent tool for promoting the group in television appearances and newspaper and magazine articles.
When The Honeycombs split in 1967, Honey disappeared from the music scene to raise a family, but in later life returned to playing live with a reincarnated version of the group from the 80s onwards.
Honey went on to marry David Coxall, a pensions administrator, in 1969 and spent most of the next two decades raising their two sons, Matthew and Simon.
While there were any number of young female singers flourishing in the early 1960s, among them Dusty Springfield and Lulu, beat groups of the day were a strictly a male preserve, and the novelty of the attractive, smiling figure of Honey Lantree, in fashionable beehive hairdo, seated behind a drum kit, was a potent tool for promoting the group in television appearances and newspaper and magazine articles.
